The primary regulator of communications in the United States is the Federal Communications Commission. It closely regulates all of the industries mentioned below with the exception of newspapers and the Internet service provider industry.

Newspapers declined in their influence and penetration into American households in the late 20th century. Most newspapers are local, having little circulation outside their particular metropolitan area. The closest thing to a national paper the U.S. has is USA Today. Other influential dailies include the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal which are sold in most U.S. cities.

Television broadcast stations: 9,024 (of which 1,750 are full-power TV stations; 592 are class-A TV stations; 4,537 are TV translators; and 2,145 are other low-power TV stations) (as of December 31, 2005, according to the Federal Communications Commission); in addition, there are about 12,000 cable TV systems.

Most local commercial television stations are owned-and-operated by or affiliated with the large national broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW. Some television networks are aimed at ethnic minorities, including Spanish-language networks Univisión and Telemundo. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is the public broadcasting network, with over 300 non-profit affiliated stations across the United States. Besides the large broadcast networks (which are free for anyone with a TV and an antenna), there are also many networks available only with a subscription to cable or satellite television, like CNN.

Because of aggressive lobbying and the United States' strong libertarian traditions, the Internet service provider industry remains relatively unregulated in comparison to other communications industries.

For various historical reasons, the .us domain was never widely used outside of a small number of government agencies and school districts. Most companies signed up for top level domains like .com instead.

NeuStar Inc. now has control over the .us registry and is trying to promote the domain as an option for American-oriented Web sites.